Champions League Performance Insights: How Tottenham rallied at Bodø/Glimt
Friday, October 3, 2025
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UEFA Technical Observer Ole Gunnar Solskjær and the UEFA game insights unit mull over Tottenham's rally at Bodø/Glimt and an intriguing scoring pattern in the Champions League this season.
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For the fourth time in the league phase of this season's UEFA Champions League, a team fought back from two goals down to earn at least a point as Tottenham Hotspur drew 2-2 at Bodø/Glimt on Tuesday.
Spurs' comeback prompted much talk afterwards of "momentum" – from both visiting coach Thomas Frank and Bodø/Glimt's Kjetil Knudsen – and in the following article, UEFA Technical Observer Ole Gunnar Solskjær with the support of the UEFA game insights unit analyse the momentum shift that occurred and consider the factors involved, tactical as well as psychological and physical.
To begin with a key change from Spurs, they started making more runs in behind. As the graphic above illustrates, in the first hour they made a total of 13 runs in behind in the opposition half. In the last half-hour they made 32.
Spurs had managed only a 36.9% share of possession in a first half controlled by Bodø/Glimt yet they were the team with more possession in the second period (62%) which enabled them to start threatening more.
"The amount of runs in behind in the last 30 minutes from Spurs shows fitness [and] belief," said Solskjær, who also cited a significant change of personnel by Frank.
"I felt at the time when Spurs added fresh legs and regular starters in Mohamed Kudus, Xavi Simons and João Palhinha, the timing was great," he observed of the introduction of Kudus and Simons (both after 60 minutes) and João Palhinha in the 69th minute – 60 seconds after their first goal.
The change in Spurs' play can be seen in the video above which shows them testing their hosts' back line with runs in behind from the attacking midfielders, notably in the spaces between the full-back and centre-back.
Momentum shift
From a Bodø/Glimt perspective, there was so much that was positive about their performance, as highlighted in this previous analysis piece, yet Knudsen bemoaned his team's loss of momentum after scoring – and it is worth noting that Spurs also had a goal disallowed shortly after the home side's opening goal.
"We are not good when we score goals," said Knudsen. "The first minutes after we score goals, we're always in trouble. It is a mental thing for me. You need to take the momentum – it is a momentum for us – and we lose the momentum."
Knudsen mentioned also the physical factor – that is, the difficulty of maintaining the intensity against opponents from the Premier League, widely recognised as the most physically intense league in Europe. "Unfortunately, we were not fit enough to [with]stand the match for 97 minutes," he said.
With Spurs applying pressure and his team dropping deeper, Knudsen switched from his usual 4-3-3 to a 5-4-1 from the 87th minute, sending on an extra centre-back, Jostein Gundersen, in the place of Håkon Evjen.
Yet it was not enough, with Spurs equalising two minutes later through Gundersen's own goal, which is featured in the video below. As mentioned above, Bodø/Glimt have an extra body in their back line at this point. One of the three centre-backs, Haitam Aleesami, steps out in response to Archie Gray's movement at the start of the clip yet then is drawn to the run inside by Spurs right-back Pedro Porro, which allows Gray to run in behind after getting goal-side of his marker.
On his side's recovery, Frank said: "After 2-0 we were [stronger] in a strange way – maybe because Bodø dropped back and we took more initiative. Sometimes that's the momentum of the game.
"We kept doing the right thing, kept moving the ball, kept producing situations from the side and showed great character to come back into the game."
A broader trend?
As mentioned above, Spurs' comeback was not the first of this season’s league phase. Bodø/Glimt themselves were one of three teams to come back from two goals behind to win or draw on Matchday 1. A fourth, Atlético de Madrid, responded to falling 2-0 behind by drawing back level at Liverpool only to lose 3-2.
From an admittedly small sample size, UEFA's game insights unit have also noted a scoring pattern of goals going in in quick succession in games. Of the 18 Matchday 1 fixtures, there were nine in which, after one goal had gone in, a second followed within five minutes – either for or against the scorers of the initial strike. Bodø/Glimt, for example, struck four minutes after Slavia Praha had made it 2-0.
The boot was on the other foot for Bodø/Glimt at Aspmyra on Tuesday as Spurs hit their first goal two minutes after going two down (having done exactly the same at 1-0, only for the goal to be disallowed).
Teams retrieving a two-goal deficit to win/draw
MD1 Juventus 4-4 Borussia Dortmund
MD1 Benfica 2-3 Qarabağ
MD1 Slavia Praha 2-2 Bodø/Glimt
MD2 Bodø/Glimt 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Coaching reflections: The psychology of a comeback
As a footballer, Ole Gunnar Solskjær was a protagonist in one of the Champions League's greatest comeback stories – scoring the 93rd-minute winner against Bayern in a 1999 final in which Manchester United had trailed entering added time. Here he reflects on the significance of the psychological factor in overturning a deficit, as Spurs did this week:
"The Premier League is the most intense league in the world though Tottenham's team spirit and morale also showed. Thomas Frank is a great man-manager and you see he has the squad in a mentally good place. Sometimes it's not all about tactics but also seizing the moment and about belief and energy.
"Psychology is an important and interesting part of football which cannot be measured. Scoring goals gives your team a boost and belief and you're more likely to make positive decisions.
"On the other hand, conceding might make you play more 'safe and negative' and Kjetil Knutsen spoke about how disappointing it was that his team lost momentum.
"From a coaching perspective, it is definitely an area that you can work on both on and off the pitch. You set up scenarios on the pitch for how to tactically respond and performance psychology is another area that is vital. The key is to create both a 'safe' environment psychologically and a highly demanding performance culture."
Ole Gunnar Solskjær was a renowned striker who won six Premier League titles at Manchester United, and scored the winner in the 1998/99 UEFA Champions League final. He steered Molde to two league titles in his native Norway then reached the 2020/21 UEFA Europa League final as United boss.
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